Inconveniently located tables.

That's been me before, and probably you too...

It is a fact of life—you will somehow cause yourself a split second of excruciating pain by running into something in your own house. From stubbing your toe on the legs of a chair or table, to crushing your hip on the corner of a table or a wall, to hitting your head on an open cupboard, or your shin on an open dishwasher (my nemesis)—it is inevitable. These are all items that are inconveniently located as you walk around your home.

My Saturday was a Saturday of inconveniences while walking around Sevilla (it was actually mostly bad luck but I’ll keep this whole “inconvenient” theme going from a few posts ago). However, there were some inconveniently located tables (even though I didn’t stub my toe on them…)

I chose to stay in Sevilla again this weekend because next weekend’s trip to Lagos is going to be very busy, very fun, and very expensive. Friday night I had talked to some people to see if they would be interested in going to the Basilica de Macarena (a very famous church only blocks away from where I live) and Plaza de Toros and the Real Maestranza (the bull fighting ring I talked about before). I had a few people interested so I told them if you want to do it, meet outside La Macarena at 11. I arrived in an un-Spanish way, punctually at 10:55, and as I walked up to the La Macarena there was a bride walking through the main doors towards the front of the church. The inside looked incredible, but I was going to have to wait to see it as the ushers closed the doors behind the bride.


I snapped a shot before they closed the doors...

Shortly after, Emily and Kim, two other teachers I have gotten to know, arrived and I informed them of this first inconvenience (or bad luck). Kim had already been to the bull ring so we decided to walk towards the center of town where she had seen several painted refrigerators sitting in Plaza de San Francisco. These were evidently pieces of art that were on display for the public and we were all intrigued at the originality of painting a household item like a refrigerator. However, inconvenience struck again; I didn’t stub my toe on one of the refrigerators, rather the refrigerators were gone when we arrived. No more kitchen appliance artwork. With our second strike out we decided to walk towards the well-known Barrio de Santa Cruz, one of the older parts of the town which used to be known as the Jewish Quarter. This was a pretty cool area, however you could tell it was a well publicized area of Sevilla do to the number of tourists, tourist trap stores, and high end restaurants around the streets of the barrio. At this point we were getting a little hungry so we stopped at a smaller restaurant and got a quick tapa. Afterwards Emily and I decided to head towards Plaza de Toros to check out Real Maestranza and Kim decided to head home.


One of the corridors in Barrio de Santa Cruz

Emily and I arrived at the stadium and bought our tickets for the tour—4 Euros with a student discount. Within 5 minutes our tour guide arrived and opened up the doors to the ring. What an awesome sight, the background of my blog. However, what was there on the field? Inconveniently located tables. They, at least for me, unfortunately took away from the spectacle of the ring. But it was still a pretty cool sight.



We sat in the stands for about 10 minutes and then went through their museum, which was mostly a collection of bull fighting paintings and memorabilia. The tour was quick, about 40 minutes, but worth the 4 Euros to see the inside of the ring.



Inconveniently located tables.

There was a bullfight today (Sunday) that Emily and I thought about going to but it was younger matadors and younger bulls, so we decided we’d save that experience for later on down the road.

After the bullring we walked home for lunch and agreed to meet up at 5:15 to try La Macarena again. After lunch and a quick siesta I headed down there and met Emily. The doors were closed again. However this time people were coming and going through the side doors. We followed, stepped into the church, and there was a mass going on. Many people were doing this, but we didn’t want to disrupt the service. We only stayed inside to take in the incredible altar and painted ceiling before leaving.

After another Saturday walking tour I was tired and spent the rest of the night watching college football. I heard this quarterback from Michigan named Denard Robinson had a pretty good game on the road, in South Bend, in his second ever career start. Sounds impressive… My fellow Michigan fans over at mgoblog had this appropriate image.



Go Blue!